Michael and Lisa Marie Become Lovers
On 1 February 1994, Michael telephoned Lisa Marie Presley at her estate in Hidden Hills, California. He was at his hide-out in Westwood. ‘Hey, listen up, girl,’ he said, according to her memory, ‘I’m heading up to Las Vegas to see The Temptations and the Fifth Dimension. Come with me. I’ll get us a suite at the Mirage and we can party like there’s no tomorrow.’
‘Am I staying in the suite with you?’ she asked
‘Hell, yeah,’ Michael said. ‘What do you think, girl?’
‘I think I’m still married,’ Lisa said.
‘Then separate rooms, if that’s what you want,’ Michael responded.
Lisa agreed to go; the next day, the two flew up to Vegas in Michael’s private plane.
Otis Williams of The Temptations once told me, ‘Man, we were backstage after the show, and here comes Mike with this chick, and he’s all up in her face, kissing on her, and we were saying, “Who the heck is this girl?” Finally, he introduced her: Lisa Marie Presley. You could have knocked me over with a feather. I said to the guys, “Check this out. The King of Pop and the King’s daughter, together. It had to happen. They looked pretty cosy.”’
Two weeks later, Lisa accompanied Michael again to the MGM Grand in Las Vegas for his appearance on
The Jackson Family Honors Special
(the programme Jermaine had been working on for months). Designed to pay homage to Elizabeth Taylor and Berry Gordy, the television special was also an attempt by the Jacksons to project a wholesome image to a now-suspicious public.
Janet made a quick appearance performing her hit ‘All Right’, before vanishing from sight as if embarrassed for herself and everyone else on stage. She had little to do with any of her family members, and steadfastly refused to appear in the planned finale. She even checked into the Luxor Hotel, rather than take a chance on running into anyone named Jackson at the MGM Grand, where most of them were staying. Michael also wanted little to do with his father or siblings, which was not a surprise. Though Jermaine had generously offered him a suite at the MGM Grand, he chose to stay at the Mirage.
‘When does the boy grow up and not have to go to the family reunions?’ Lisa has said he asked her. He said that it was taking ‘everything I have’ to show his face in public again after all that had happened with the Chandlers, ‘and to now have to do it at one of these things is really hard for me.’ If it wasn’t for his mother, he said, he would never even attempt it.
‘But if you weren’t here, there wouldn’t even be a show,’ Lisa observed.
‘Exactly,’ Michael said, dryly. He adjusted the red arm band on his black military jacket. ‘If I could, I think I would pay twenty million dollars for them to be more famous than me.’ He seemed exhausted. ‘What a relief it would be to accept their love and not have to wonder what they have planned for me, next.’
It was then that Lisa had an uncomfortable encounter with Elizabeth Taylor, who had tried to coax Michael into performing. He didn’t want to sing. Rather, he just wanted to make an appearance, present an award, and then sit in the audience. As Elizabeth tried to change his mind, an already-protective Lisa intervened. ‘Look, he’s not going to perform,’ she told Elizabeth, ‘so you might as well just leave it alone.’ Elizabeth, taken aback, gave Lisa a once-over and remarked, ‘Well, you’re the boss, I guess,’ and walked away.
(In the end, after the show was broadcast, Michael ended up getting dragged into a messy lawsuit between the producers of the show against the Jackson family.)
When they got back from Las Vegas, on 21 February, Michael invited Lisa to Neverland. The two spent hours walking hand in hand on the well-manicured property, as Lisa’s children, Danielle, five, and Benjamin Storm, eighteen months, played with their nanny. Workers at the estate recall seeing Michael and Lisa kissing while high atop the Ferris wheel, then nodding graciously to the Neverland staff members as they sauntered from one ride to the next.
There were times when Michael seemed unable to contain his laughter; he seemed to appreciate Lisa’s sharp and clever mind as much as he relished her new role as protector and sounding board. ‘I can run anything by her,’ he said, ‘and she has a good point of view about it. She’s on top of everything, she knows so much. I’ve never known a person like her.’
He made sure all of her needs were met in an instant. If she got thirsty, he would clap his hands once and, as if by magic, a waiter would appear with an aperitif. If she was too tired to walk, someone driving a golf cart would appear to take her back to her room for a nap.
For the first two days, Lisa and her children stayed in one of the visitors’ units on the property. On the third night, Michael ordered a dinner of poached salmon and cucumber salad to be served to him and Lisa on one of the candle-lit terraces. Afterward, he presented Lisa with a gift: a three-strand, pearl choker with a diamond clasp at the front, worth about $50,000. That evening, while her children and their nanny slept in the guest quarters, Lisa stayed with Michael in his bedroom.
Did they make love? Lisa, say her friends, is a woman who enjoys physical intimacy and would not become involved in a relationship that was not sexual. She was aware that her mother and father had stopped being intimate shortly after she was conceived. Elvis met Priscilla when she was just fourteen; he was twenty-four. The two lived together for six years before marrying in Las Vegas, but were never intimate. Then, on their honeymoon, Priscilla got pregnant. Eight months later, Lisa was born. After that, Elvis would never touch Priscilla again saying he felt weird having sex with his child’s mother. ‘I was young and accepted his way of life as normal,’ Priscilla recalled. Though she was one of the most publicized women in America, Priscilla then lived in a sexless marriage for a couple of years before she got involved with her karate instructor – and that was pretty much the end of her marriage to Elvis. Lisa was not about to find herself in the same situation.
In truth, Lisa and Michael had an intense and active sex life, which came as a surprise to many people. According to all available evidence, it was the first time he had ever experienced such chemistry with a woman, or with
anyone
, for that matter. His associates say the early stages of the romance impacted his personality in positive ways, in terms of his self-confidence and self-image. ‘Apparently, Michael Jackson is a freak in bed,’ said Lisa’s friend Monica Pastelle. ‘Lisa said he was amazing, and she’s been around. Everyone was saying, “No way, Lisa. It can’t be true. Michael Jackson? Are we talking about
the
Michael Jackson, the one with the glove?” However, she wasn’t joking, and it wasn’t long before she didn’t think it was funny, either.’
Who knows why it became so intense for Michael with Lisa. However, it was this surprising – some may think of it as astonishing – sexual component that most cemented the relationship between Michael and Lisa.
The ‘first time’ for them was in Florida, during a weekend stay at Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago estate in Palm Beach. Donald recalls seeing Michael and Lisa walking hand in hand on his estate, seeming lost in a mutual dream. In a photograph taken that day, Lisa was elegantly dressed in a severely tailored, black silk dress that fell in fluid lines around her shapely figure. Michael was wearing a sharp, black suit, scarlet-coloured shirt and matching tie. At one point, he dropped to one knee and kissed her hand. She urged him to his feet; the two embraced. Michael gazed at her intensely, mesmerized by her face. They kissed. He pulled from his vest pocket a small, wrapped box. When she opened it, Lisa’s face lit up. Pearls.
‘It was romantic,’ Donald Trump recalled. ‘Later, I asked Michael how things were going and he said, “Great. I just got to kiss the most beautiful girl in the world. I hope I’m worthy of her. I think I might marry her.”’
‘They made love at the Trump estate,’ said another one of Lisa’s confidantes. ‘She said it was intense, it took her breath away. I have no idea what they were doing, or what
he
was doing to her, but since she gravitates toward the unconventional, she was out of her mind over this guy. Maybe it’s hard for some to believe,’ she concluded, ‘but true, just the same.
‘After that first time, she went to turn on the lights, and he leapt out of bed and ran into the bathroom so she wouldn’t see his body. He emerged twenty minutes later, in full makeup and wearing a silk robe.
Then, they went at it, again. He liked her to wear jewellery in bed. They were into role-playing games, though Lisa would never say who was playing what kind of role.’
To say that Michael wanted children is to understate the way he felt about procreation. He craved offspring. When Lisa didn’t become immediately pregnant, even before they were married, he began to express his disappointment. ‘I want children,’ he said, ‘and I thought we would be expecting one within a couple of weeks of making love. But Lisa says it takes time. I don’t have time,’ he said. ‘I want it to happen, now. I want children so badly.’